When Tony Hillary fitted his first made-to-measure window blind in 1971, Hillarys was a one-man band and Venetian blinds were the only offering. Over 45 years later, the Hillarys offering is much wider, helping make homes beautiful across the UK with made-to-measure blinds, curtains and shutters, as well as awnings and carpets. Hillarys sell to their customers through bespoke in-home service, where over 1,000 expert advisors handle measuring and fitting.

Hillarys learned through focus groups that their best customers use Pinterest before making a purchase to gain knowledge and get inspiration for products and styles. In the UK, home décor is the third largest category on Pinterest with nearly 140 million Pins saved in 2016.1 Within home décor, the largest sub-interests are rooms, ideas and spaces, where Hillarys' product categories play a starring role.

Hillarys saw an opportunity to help Pinners through the research phase and shape their home décor ideas. That would help position Hillarys as an expert resource.

Chris McKaySocial Media Manager, Hillarys

“We didn't just want to upload our product catalogue and hope for the best. We wanted Pinterest to be an integral part and play a role in our overall customer journey.”

Their solution

Integrating Pinterest into the customer journey

Hillarys’ strategy used Pinterest as a touchpoint from the time the customer got an idea to the time they made a purchase. They used four key tactics that showcased their expertise and kept Hillarys top of mind for potential customers. Here’s how they did it:

Trend and style content: Rather than exclusively saving Pins of their own products, Hillarys positioned themselves as a trusted source of inspiration by also building boards around emerging trends, styles and colours.

Promoted Pins: A Promoted Pin campaign targeted relevant Pinners to increase the amount of quality traffic being sent to the Hillarys site.

Influencer marketing: Hillarys worked with Pinterest to find the right influencers for their campaign. Influencers such as Jen Stanbrook (LoveChicLiving) and Cate St Hill (Beautiful Window Shutters) helped amplify their message.

Offline integration: Hillarys began featuring “Popular on Pinterest” badges in their showroom, highlighting their most popular Pins to encourage point-of-sale conversions. Pinterest Analytics kept Hillarys informed about Pin performance.

Featured board

Their results

Increasing quality traffic and appointments

Pinterest proved to be a great marketing platform for Hillarys. “The percentage of new customers from Pinterest was one of the highest we saw across our social media referral platforms” said Chris McKay, Social Media Manager at Hillarys.

On its own, the Promoted Pin campaign drove a 53% increase in traffic and an 11x increase in appointment bookings. Overall, traffic from Pinterest increased 6x. The referrals were high quality and tend to be highly engaged with the Hillarys website.

By incorporating Hillarys throughout the Pinner experience, Hillarys proved that Pinterest can be used effectively to build engagement and consideration with their desired audience.

1Pinterest internal data, 2016

Chris McKaySocial Media Manager, Hillarys

“Over the last year, we’ve seen a huge increase in traffic from Pinterest, taking it to one of our largest social media referrals. This has had a positive knock-on effect for conversion and has helped us reach our objectives.”